Relative Age-dating – Discovery of Important Stratigraphic Principles

This activity has benefited from input from faculty educators beyond the author through a review and suggestion process.

This review took place as a part of a faculty professional development workshop where groups of faculty reviewed each others' activities and offered feedback and ideas for improvements. To learn more about the process On the Cutting Edge uses for activity review, see http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/review.html.

This activity was selected for the On the Cutting Edge Exemplary Teaching Collection

Resources in this top level collection a) must have scored Exemplary or Very Good in all five review categories, and must also rate as “Exemplary” in at least three of the five categories. The five categories included in the peer review process are

Summary

Students don't have to be passively taught the important principles geologists use to do relative age-dating of rocks and geologic events. By careful analysis and critical thinking about photos and illustrations of rock outcrops, they can discover these principles themselves, and present their discoveries to the class!

Context

Audience

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Assumes practically no prior skills or knowledge. Students will have completed a 3-hour laboratory introducing (reviewing) minerals and rocks prior to this classroom exercise, and will have a handout of common lithologic symbols used for geologic maps and cross sections.

How the activity is situated in the course

Used very early in the Semester, during the development of the principles and concepts used by geologists to determine relative age relationships of rocks and geologic events.

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Students discover principles, from real and simulated examples, used for relative age-dating of rocks and geologic events.
Students create a descriptive name for the principle.
Students describe how their principle can be used as a general relative age-dating principle to the class.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

1.) Knowledge–Identify rock types and other symbols.
2.) Knowledge–Observation and recall of information.
3.) Comprehension–Translate knowledge into new context.
4.) Application–Use concepts in new situations.
5.) Analysis–Pattern recognition.
6.) Synthesis–Generalize from given facts and observations.
7.) Synthesis–Creation of general principles.
8.) Evaluation–Assess value of principles.

Other skills goals for this activity

Creativity, use of language.
Working in groups.
Oral presentations (for some).

Description of the activity/assignment

When piecing together the geologic history of the Earth, geologists rely on several key relative age-dating principles that allow us to determine the relative ages of rocks and the timing of significant geologic events. In a typical Historical Geology class or textbook, instructors/authors briefly discuss the important early researchers in the geological sciences, and then give the name of the stratigraphic principle, useful for relative age-dating of rocks and events, that these 17th and 18th century scientists are credited with discovering. After the instructor/author defines these principles, students are usually shown several examples so they can see how the principle can be applied.

But why not start with the examples and let students discover these principles for themselves?

Students are split into small groups which each work to discover a different relative age-dating principle. The groups are shown photos and given handouts with drawings of rock outcrops illustrating the various principles. These handouts include worksheets for which they must answer a series of prompts that help lead them to the discovery of their relative age-dating principle. Groups must also invent a name for their principle, and select a spokesperson who will present the group's results to the rest of the class.

Determining whether students have met the goals

No objective evaluation, however, these questions should be addressed:

Did each group discover a principle, and invent a name for it?

Was each group able to describe the use of their principle?

Did any classroom discussion ensue in agreement or disagreement with efforts of particular groups?

Provenance: Sean Fox, Carleton CollegeReuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Provenance: GSAReuse: If you wish to use this item outside this site in ways that exceed fair use (see http://fairuse.stanford.edu/) you must seek permission from its creator.

GSA supports On the Cutting Edge

The mission of The Geological Society of America is to advance geoscience research and discovery, service to society, stewardship of Earth, and the geosciences profession. We support geoscience education at every level. Join us at http://www.geosociety.org/

Provenance: NAGTReuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Value this site? Help us ensure its future.

The On the Cutting Edge website and workshop program are supported by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT). Join today and your membership will help ensure that this site can continue to serve geoscience educators. Join NAGT today

Provenance: NAGTReuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Your NAGT membership helps make this site
possible. Thank you!

The On the Cutting Edge website and workshop program are supported by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT). Your membership is helping to ensure that this site can continue to serve geoscience educators.